Despite the long drive, I had a great time at Run The Woodlands this morning, where the Houston Running Bloggers challenged the Seven Hills Running Club to a friendly competition. We bloggers were defeated before the race even began due to participation points — SHRC got 40+ members out there, while HRB doesn’t even have 40 members total — but everyone still had a great time and Run The Woodlands set a new participant record of ~170 runners! Not bad at all for a race that costs only $1.
I ran a pretty good race — I forgot to stop my watch until a bit after the finish line, but I think I was right at about 32:30, same as Maribelle’s last week. I ran the first mile with Cassie and Donna and we covered it in about 10:20. Donna and I stopped for a quick walk break before running some more. I got ahead of Donna but couldn’t catch up to Cassie, and passed the mile 2 marker in 20:50. I think I pushed a bit too hard in that second mile, because I had to take three quick walk breaks in the third mile as the heat got to me. (“Acclimated” as I may get to the heat, it still gets to me. Last night I ran 4 miles in an overall average of 10:50 on the treadmill and had gas left in the tank at the end. Today I had no gas left when I huffed across the finish line.)
So, it was a good race for me and I had a great time seeing all my “internet friends.” I also saw Gavin’s dad and — very randomly — Amy Cupitt (I play softball with her husband Sean). Amy couldn’t believe that she actually saw someone she know at Run The Woodlands (she was up to hang out with a friend) and I thought it was pretty unbelievable as well! I had to tell her that it was a special occasion, and that I’m not actually crazy enough to drive an hour both ways to do RTW regularly.
After the race I made it back to Clear Lake in time for lunch with Jose, Becca and Cari who’d all gone flying this morning. Becca’s trying to talk Jose into taking flying lessons (he’s interested enough that she may actually be able to do it) so she can have another pilot friend. 🙂
Great to see you againg, Sarah. Nice race in the 8 am heat.
I’m so jealous of Becca. It’s been a lifelong dream of mine since the days of playing Flight Simulator 1.0 on my neighbor’s Commadore 64, to learn how to fly. I actually took a “discovery flight” about a year ago. It was awesome. One day, I’m gonna do get my license.
I like Cassie’s sunglasses better than mine. Hey, I didn’t realize until I was reading through everyone’s blogs (to console myself over the Astros game; I needed something to cheer me up) but apparently you came in right about the same time as Cassie.
I thought I’d surely see someone from work since I know several people who have run that but no such luck.
It was great to see you! I’m glad you brought your camera!
Nice seeing you yesterday. It was fun. Can you send me the group pics?